


Cast No Shadow

by katy15307



Series: (What's the Story) Morning Glory? 1995 [7]
Category: Oasis (Band), The Verve
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-30
Updated: 2016-08-30
Packaged: 2018-08-12 00:16:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,254
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7913026
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katy15307/pseuds/katy15307
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Oasis are supporting the Verve but Richard Ashcroft has a dark secret he'd rather keep. (1993)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cast No Shadow

**Author's Note:**

> Embarrassingly inspired by the Take That video How Deep is Your Love?

There was something different about him. Everyone’s Mum thinks that about their child, billions of people and no one’s the same but this is different. He is different.  
No one noticed though. He was quiet, he could be shy, kept to himself, kept his secret hidden in plain sight even while he was performing to thousands.   
His band, the Verve took on Oasis as their support band. They’d got their label contract but not much gig experience so they gave them the chance, boost their popularity some more before they got into the studio.  
He was hanging out with the young band backstage while everyone else busied themselves with preparing for the night’s gig. They smoked and drank beer, all the usual stuff but no one was saying much. They were all so chilled.  
Liam, this new band’s outspoken lead singer was sat, silently staring at him. He didn’t know what it was but he could see Richard Ashcroft was no ordinary man.   
“You’ve got no shadow, mate.” he observed. “The fuck’s that about?”  
Everyone including Richard looked at him like he’d gone a little bit mad but he was right, there was no shadow attached to the Verve’s lead man. Natural light or artificial, it didn’t make a difference there was and never had been a shadow coming off of him.  
“He’s right. How’d you notice something like that?” Bonehead asked.  
“Just use me eyes.” Liam shrugged.  
He clearly didn’t know what it meant but Richard didn’t like it, nobody was supposed to know. If they knew they would figure it out.   
“What is that about then?” Guigsy asked although he was hardly paying them a spec of attention when he had a blunt to roll.  
Richard cut the lights, putting them into darkness.  
…   
Liam woke up, regained consciousness first. He blinked and slowly looked around but there was hardly anything he could see in this dark room, he had no idea where he was.  
Richard sat quietly and watched. He had a plan and putting it in place was proving to be a thrill, he could see fine, he could see the new band sat in a row, in the pitch black.  
They weren’t there willingly, he had put them there, set out the wooden chairs and carefully tied them to the chairs so they wouldn’t go anywhere until he wanted them to.  
“Richard, is that you over there?” Liam spoke, interrupting his thought process.  
He didn’t know whether to speak or not, he didn’t want to alarm any of them until they were all awake and ready to pay attention. He decided not, he continued to sit motionless so he didn’t give himself away.  
“Oi! What’s going on?” Liam shouted and started trying to thrash about. “Why can’t I fucking move?”  
“Liam, shut it.” Noel responded groggily.  
He may have given Noel a little more sedative than he’d needed but it didn’t matter.  
Once he’d heard all five members’ voices he stood up and flicked his lighter on. He went around the room lighting candles until it was just light enough for them to see him almost as well as he could see them.  
“Richard?” While Liam was still thrashing, trying to fight his bonds with all his might, Noel tried diplomacy. “Mate, what’s going on here? Why are we tied up in some basement or something?”  
“You know my secret.”  
“We know nothing, we’re just a bunch of high idiots!” Guigsy insisted.  
“What secret?” Noel asked, frowning hard as he tried to remember the night before. “We just met you and if I do know something I just can’t remember.”  
He didn’t believe them, he couldn’t let it get out. He may have been acting in paranoia but he had to do something and this was the only way as far as he could see.  
“What are you going to do to us?” Bonehead asked to the questioning.  
He didn’t expect them all to be so calm, well except Liam who couldn’t sit still. He was still grunting and fighting as if he’d stand a chance against Richard’s ropes.  
“I’m sorry, I really am but I can’t let you go.”  
“Fucking untie us, you devious little cunt!” Liam shouted out in frustration. “No one’s scared of you.”  
“I don’t want you to be scared.”  
Noel turned his head towards Liam telling him “Shut the fuck up and calm down!” before looking Richard dead in the eye. “What do you want then?”  
Liam didn’t listen to his brother, he was too determined, Richard admired that about him.  
“I don’t want anything…”  
“You don’t tie up five lads for nothing.” Bonehead interrupted in a mutter.  
“I have to get rid of you, all of you. You know my secret.” he answered coldly. “I survive because no one knows.”  
“For FUCK’S sake, what fucking secret?” Liam had completely lost his patience.  
“I cast no shadow. See, in the candle light, in sunlight, in electric light, no shadow.”  
“Yeah, what does that mean?” Bonehead shrugged.  
He was reluctant to tell them but they deserved to know what they’d gotten themselves into. “A long, long time ago, somebody took my soul, they stole it along with my pride, in return I carry the burden of the weight of the world, surviving on and on.”  
“So what?” Noel said impatient and unimpressed.  
None of them understood.  
“Just shut up now, all of you.” he instructed.   
They did, silently watching and obeying, even Liam had stopped moving.  
He picked up one of the candles and poured the hot wax on the skin of his forearm. It should’ve hurt like hell but it didn’t, he didn’t flinch in the slightest. “I feel nothing.”  
Liam pulled a face, unimpressed. “It’s just wax.”  
That was it, Richard was done with talking, he just walked out, leaving them locked in the basement. He could leave them there forever and no one would ever suspect a thing.   
He left them there, in the dark until they didn’t know if it had been hours or days that had gone by.  
…   
They had to go, he loaded them all into the back of a tour van and just drove.  
He pulled the van to a sudden stop and lined the five band members along the riverbank, still tied to their chairs.  
Liam awoke, looked around and started yelling but sat dead still as not to unbalance the chair, now he was terrified. “No, no, no, not here!”  
The other’s regained consciousness and kept their eyes firmly on Richard.  
“What’s your problem now?” Richard asked impatiently.  
“I almost drowned here, right fucking here.” By bizarre coincidence it was the exact spot on the Mersey river that almost took Liam’s life when he was young.  
“He’s not lying, why the fuck would you bring us here?” Noel asked.  
“There will be no almost this time.” Richard said coldly.  
“Tell us why you’re trying to fucking kill us!” Noel demanded.  
“It’s the burden I carry, no one can know and live. I’ll never die but you will, today.”  
He flipped Tony, Guigsy and Bonehead’s chairs, plunging them into the river with ease, their weight dragged them under.  
Liam started frantically protesting as loud as he could and he wasn’t going to be silenced.  
He held his hand on each brother’s chair. “Y’know what, it’s a shame, you had real potential, if only you’d kept your mouth shut.”  
They followed their band members deep into the freezing murky water. Richard got in the van and left the scene.

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry I just made you waste moments of your life reading that. As Mort Rainey said "This is just bad writing." It should be deleted but I don't ever like deleting so I won't.


End file.
